Studies of autistic children suggest that restricted eating, reduced physical activity, and sleep disorders are common; however, no studies attempt to broadly describe the diet, exercise, and sleep patterns of autistic adults or consider relationships between lifestyle behaviors and the widely reported increased risks of obesity and chronic conditions. To address this, the authors developed the largest study of lifestyle patterns of autistic adults and assessed their relationships to body mass index, health outcomes, and family history. We administered an anonymized, online survey to n = 2386 adults (n = 1183 autistic) aged 16–90 years of age. We employed Fisher’s exact tests and binomial logistic regression to describe diet, exercise, and sleep patterns; mediation of seizure disorders on sleep; body mass index (BMI); relationships of lifestyle factors to BMI, cardiovascular conditions, and diabetic conditions; and sex differences among autistic adults. Autistic adults, and particularly autistic females, exhibit unhealthy diet, exercise, and sleep patterns; they are also more likely to be underweight or obese. Limited sleep duration and high rates of sleep disturbances cannot be accounted for by epilepsy or seizure disorders. Lifestyle factors are positively related to higher risk of cardiovascular conditions among autistic males, even more than family history. Our sample may not be representative of all autistic and non-autistic people, as it primarily comprised individuals who are white, female, have a high school education or higher, and reside in the UK. Our sampling methods may also exclude some individuals on the autism spectrum, and particularly those with moderate to severe intellectual disability. This is a cross-sectional sample that can test for relationships between factors (e.g., lifestyle factors and health outcomes) but cannot assess the direction of these relationships. Autistic adults are less likely to meet minimal health recommendations for diet, exercise, and sleep—and these unhealthy behaviors may relate to excess risk of cardiovascular conditions. Although the present study can only provide preliminary, correlational evidence, our findings suggest that diet, exercise, and sleep should be considered and further investigated as key targets for reducing the now widely reported and dramatically increased risks of health comorbidity and premature death among autistic individuals compared to others. Physicians should work cooperatively with patients to provide health education and develop individualized strategies for how to better manage challenges with diet, exercise, and sleep.

中文翻译：

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对成人自闭症患者的饮食、运动、睡眠、体重指数和健康结果的调查

对自闭症儿童的研究表明，饮食限制、体力活动减少和睡眠障碍很常见；然而，没有研究试图广泛描述自闭症成人的饮食、运动和睡眠模式，也没有研究考虑生活方式行为与广泛报道的肥胖和慢性病风险增加之间的关系。为了解决这个问题，作者对自闭症成人的生活方式模式进行了最大规模的研究，并评估了他们与体重指数、健康结果和家族史的关系。我们对 2386 名 16-90 岁的成年人（n = 1183 名自闭症患者）进行了一项匿名在线调查。我们采用费舍尔精确检验和二项式逻辑回归来描述饮食、运动和睡眠模式；调节癫痫发作对睡眠的影响；体重指数（BMI）；生活方式因素与体重指数、心血管疾病和糖尿病的关系；以及自闭症成人之间的性别差异。自闭症成人，尤其是自闭症女性，表现出不健康的饮食、运动和睡眠模式；他们也更有可能体重不足或肥胖。睡眠时间有限和睡眠障碍发生率高不能用癫痫或癫痫病来解释。生活方式因素与自闭症男性心血管疾病的较高风险呈正相关，甚至超过家族史。我们的样本可能无法代表所有自闭症和非自闭症患者，因为它主要包括居住在英国、受过高中或更高学历的白人女性。我们的抽样方法也可能排除一些自闭症谱系人士，特别是那些患有中度至重度智力障碍的人。这是一个横截面样本，可以测试因素（例如，生活方式因素和健康结果）之间的关系，但无法评估这些关系的方向。自闭症成年人不太可能满足饮食、运动和睡眠方面的最低健康建议，而这些不健康的行为可能与心血管疾病的风险过高有关。尽管目前的研究只能提供初步的相关证据，但我们的研究结果表明，饮食、运动和睡眠应该被考虑并进一步研究，作为减少自闭症患者目前广泛报道的、显着增加的健康合并症和过早死亡风险的关键目标与其他人相比。医生应与患者合作，提供健康教育并制定个性化策略，以更好地应对饮食、运动和睡眠方面的挑战。